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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for processing an application information processing operation. The invention more particularly relates to a system and method for processing a recurrent application information processing operation according to information processing periods specified for an entity.
2. Background Art
Managing the various activities of a large business or enterprise has been a complicated undertaking, especially where the enterprise is composed of many different business entities dispersed geographically across a city, state, nation or the entire world. To help coordinate the activities of the business entities, many enterprises implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems. The ERP software systems enabled the enterprises to integrate all of their business information and functions, such as manufacturing, payroll, and supply chain functions, into a single system so that each business entity within a respective enterprise would have access to the information and functions.
An important benefit of the ERP software systems has been the ability to process information, or prepare reports, for the enterprise that enable business executives and other decision makers to analyze the operations of the associated business entities. By selecting a business entity to analyze, designating the desired information to process, and manually selecting a desired time for processing, it was possible to process the information or report for the selected business entity at the desired time.
While such known processing operations were suitable for a one-time information processing operation performed at a time selected by a user, they were not suitable for processing information on a recurring basis according to a fiscal date pattern for the selected entity. In this regard, the user was required to schedule the multiple processing times by manually selecting each one of the processing times. For each processing time corresponding to the fiscal date pattern, there existed the possibility of the introduction of an error, thereby making the resulting processed information less reliable. Furthermore, the time to make the required selections was completely unsatisfactory where information for more than one entity was to be processed.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved system and method for processing recurrent information processing operations, wherein the introduction of errors is substantially reduced. Such a processing system should enable the scheduling of recurrent information processing jobs in a quick and easy manner.
Further complicating the processing of recurrent information processing operations was the dispersal of the business entities across multiple time zones. Consequently, scheduling the processing operations according to one time zone did not necessarily result in the processing operation occurring at a desired time in another time zone.
Therefore, it would also be highly desirable to have a new and improved system and method for processing recurrent information processing operations that accommodate processing operations in more than one time zone.
Therefore, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved system and method for processing recurrent information processing operations which substantially reduces the entry of errors, and which can be utilized in a quick and easy manner. Such a system and method should also facilitate the processing of information processing in more than one time zone.
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present invention are realized by providing a new and improved system and method for processing recurrent information processing operations without requiring substantial input from a user, and which facilitates processing in more than one time zone.
The processing system includes a storage device for maintaining entity information including period information indicative of information processing periods for the entity. A scheduling application defines application processing information for a desired processing job and identifies the processing job as being recurrent. A function routine determines recurrence information including a set of processing start times corresponding to the information processing periods and the application processing information associated with the processing job. A launch application accesses the recurrence information to identify a current one of the start times, and submits the processing job corresponding to the current start time for processing.